tonight big withdrawals of britain's barclays bank now three top executives have quit so with the interest rate rigging scam. syria's president assad nice clinging to the leadership and says he'd go if it brought peace fighting is raging nationwide meantime despite more global efforts to end the. russian foreign minister warns the syrian opposition not to destroy the results of the geneva conference saying prime chance to solve this six month old in the country more details on that just ahead. the rand says new western wall sanctions will cloud future of nuclear negotiations this is the country conducted tests now long range missiles capable of reaching american bases in the region and in israel.

hello this is r t it's eight pm choose day night here in moscow my name is kevin and it's good to have you with us now is one of the world's biggest banks but in just two days a rate rigging scandal three of its most senior executives forced out buckley's bank was caught fixing a key interest rate which overcharged customers when the financial crisis struck the biggest scope today is c.e.o. bob diamond then hours later the chief operating officer followed him out while the chairman's promise to go to when replacements are found here's our london correspondent sarah firth. well of course this story absolutely dominating the headlines here today after we saw the resignation from barclays chief executive bob diamond he'd come under a huge amount of pressure barclays rigging the key interest rates known as

libel and this was used to set the course for the millions of businesses of consumers of investors to morrow we're going to see a lot of inflation between him and m.p.'s as he faces questioning but of course this story so much bigger than just bob diamond in fact is thought as many as twelve to fifteen other institutions could be involved in this so already questions over whether we're going to see more top level resignations affair really that there's much more to come from this and it's given us all a glimpse again you know that this isn't just a few bad apples but that really the rotten call of britain's banking system simply hasn't been dealt with after the last financial crisis so once again this scandal has really cooled into question the culture and practices of the entire banking sector and it's not just barclays but of course the entire city's reputation really

entices what the general public want to know this time is look what on earth is going to be done about it and you know talks of an inquiry at this time aren't really going to cut it they drag on they take a very long time though we do know that the serious fraud office the s.f.o. is looking at the moment to see if any criminal sanctions can be taken against those that are involved but you know really a sense here that we're seeing history repeating itself and it's also raising very big questions and even the regulation of this you know why once again have we not seen the regulators stepping in and that's going to be another thing that we sort of going to see evolving certainly a for the coming weeks but months and years as well that really a lot of the people we've been speaking to has said this is something that really needs to change the regulation needs to be much more. interventionists you know this culture of weak corporate governance in the banking sector in loose morals isn't any barclays this is very very widespread and say what the what the public

want to see here is a crackdown on the wrongdoing and that the people who have been involved in the lying and the manipulation going to receive a punishment that fits the crime. economists to. the whole big sector of the u.k. institutional change the culture of the city and of financial institutions in london is pretty vile this is a get rich quick cut your throat really quite unpleasant environment for any kind of businesses to be operating it's not quite right to just talk about the coach this is systemic this is the way these institutions work coach is a byproduct if you have institutions that are set up to make a fast book as quickly as possible and not care how it's made then of course you get a culture that promotes this is well so i think we have to look deep in culture we have to talk about real institutional change and what's interesting about this is the way in which it has started as a problem just of one bank and then became very rapidly apparently even on the evidence of the financial services authority presented there's other banks were

involved in rate rigging and it's now sort of extended one way or the other to the bank of england itself to the central bank in a serious questions being asked apparently conversations that took place between bob diamond and the deputy governor of the bank of england in october two thousand and eight that led to barclays believing it had a kind of license to go because the bank of england was saying it was ok to do this that's barclays kind of defense of its actions so really it's not just the private banks it's the central bank itself starts to look implicated in all of this. britain's banks may be dressing up their debts then but in germany they've got better ways for rainy days saving savvy german luxury shopping sprees these days to safeguard their cash against the troubled euro as we reported shortly on the program. next syria's president assad says he's prepared to leave his post if that's the will of his people and it brings peace in syria meantime in cairo the country's opposition coalition insists people must retain their right to defend

themselves before they could be any deals with the syrian leadership. in a report. president bashar assad has syria is now ready and will welcome any solution to the ongoing crisis here in the country if only it guarantees the country's sovereignty commenting on the geneva peace initiative to create an interim government uniting the opposition and current regime the syrian leader has also stated that he's satisfied that the document stressing that it's up to the syrian people to decide the country's future in another interview here just recently to the turkish newspaper he has sat that he wishes that this downing of the turkish plane by serious never happened three days after the geneva meeting while the skepticism is growing that the peace initiative forged by world powers at the weekend will only remain a solution of paper we're only hearing from the russian foreign minister that this

plan is a very good chance of prime chance to solve the crisis the sixteen month loan crisis here in syria. unfortunately some members of the syrian opposition started saying that the geneva proposals are only acceptable whereas some western participants of the geneva talks have come up with distorted interpretation as in their statements we believe that the geneva communiqué should not be open to interpretation which should be implemented as agreed today is the second day of the syrian opposition mission in cairo and the main idea of this meeting was to uni fi to hammer out a common vision on this syrian conflict in order to gain some respect some trust from the syrian people the syrian opposition has indeed been criticized harshly recently for being too fragmented to be trusted and the opposition itself has confirmed that it has. to be more united and has to have a common vision on how to end crisis in syria the opposition is divided and while

the reason one part ready to talk wanted to discuss this interim government initiative there is another part that only wants to can. new fighting and doesn't want any dialogue with anybody and also surprising to hear that just days after the u.n. has confirmed that both sides of the syrian conflict i recall the responsible for the violence here in the country and what is supplied to both the regime and the rebels have been escalating the conflict. in damascus there are still to come this corruption and coercion in the got final edition of jihad and the sounds of the interview show hearing all day today here on this channel measures opposition leader talking to the world famous will supply or about the violent struggle for elections coming up. around says new western oil sanctions could impact negatively on future nuclear negotiations tensions are mounting around to run as a new e.u.

embargoed aims to put pressure on its atomic program is out is middle east correspondent paula slayer. we're hearing from the radio foreign minister that iran wants a wooden situation he says that the only other alternative is confrontation which is not in anyone's interest now this comes as the israeli f. we really haven't drafted a group that calls for the frustration of the shipment of crude oil through the strait of hormuz to countries that support sanctions against iran and now this follows the call back by the european union they have called for an embargo on iranian oil that was passed back in january it went into effect this past sunday now also today tuesday the radio government announced that it had to test a number of missiles including long range missiles that potentially could hit u.s. warships in the persian gulf but the situation on the ground is certainly intensifying the united states has sent for minesweepers to the persian gulf to

boost its fleet there and that comes amid renewed threats by iran that it is closing a wall potentially or could potentially close the strait of hormuz there have been three rounds of negotiations between iran and the six world powers and so far these have yielded no breakthrough there is a now the meeting happening today tuesday in istanbul it's a low level meeting that is looking at seeing whether or not there's any kind of common ground between the sides that could then lead to fully fledged negotiations but the expectation of today's meeting is rather dismal iran accuses the international powers of dragging their feet and says that it's not in their interest to reach any kind of compromise or any kind of solution at the same time iran is insisting that its nuclear program is for peaceful civilian purposes but we're hearing continuously from powers such as the united states countries like israel and other countries that they suspect that iran's nuclear program is merely

a cover for being nuclear warfare. thoughts run to lindsay just. serves the usual sanctions mostly fuel the already terms relationship between iran and the west. these sanctions are very serious sanctions they are cutting nearly a fifth of iran's oil expert exports. fantastic pressure on the people of iran. very very high food prices inflation i don't believe these sanctions will have the effect of stopping the nuclear power program i think much more likely is that they will increase tensions between the between the countries already we have american ships in the gulf threats to close the straits of hormuz. this is a very very serious situation i don't see the justification for the sanctions are

there for them if it is right the european union thinks it can dictate to countries in the middle east or elsewhere what they. open a very very big question which is who actually does have nuclear weapons and the only power that has them is israel in the seems to be absolutely no sanction on israel for having developed them and for having acquired a large number of nuclear weapons. from new president the public because tough savings in cuts are needed to hit deficit targets even though he was voted in on that. ticket more this than with thomas clough is a political analyst from the european council on foreign relations is on the line from paris thomas very good evening thanks for being on r.t. france nice to make what ten billion euros worth of savings this year to hit targets president possibly juggle along with the austerity man that he was voted on as are going to work but it's going to be difficult one of those promises on the.

detail. if you. will on the government will make good on a number. well i'm careful to stress throughout the complaint bring down the deficit vertical of our approach with ministration he hasn't said exactly how we would do it we have to where to put it and that's what the lawsuit that we're going to watch for the news groups well certainly it's not good news if you know what million euros i was about eight hundred thousand pounds isn't even faced to pay taxes up to seventy five percent so that they're not going to be happy but what about the rest the majority of the french people who want payback for their votes what are they going to be after and how they're going to get it well they have gotten the european deal on doing more for growth which is one of the things possible along had announced

convince the european union eurozone partners in particular that's what we think you. and the government of course also promised that while there would be pain and there was a no there would be then regardless of what the elections because taxes were going to come out anyway in view of the economic and both duration of the pain would be more fairly spread fairly the sense that the rich would be also take a much bigger part with the most with the poorest sections or nation wouldn't be taxed for that and in the way that they would have been so it's possible a lot of the right power with all that's good materialize and in particular whether it will. remain very much seen we can all remember that very rainy day the president was sworn in he has not been in power for long just less than a couple of months how much political support is he accumulated in that time other clouds on the horizon but it is very lucky that it's called for rebalancing of the euro zone policy framework policy mix growth plan and want support not only another

year of income to keep the financial markets and indeed the financial markets far from punishing fronts for electing its center the president have a good sense for the role of the french electorate with treating countries france for the time being as a country almost a safe haven. in the present you're going to prices for the for spain and italy are on the edge of being sarky conduct a disaster for states which has already reached. portugal now the french government knows that there's as a safe rate and it's extremely poor areas and that the markets in particular are going to watch very carefully what concrete measures elsewhere or i mean it's not of your own so the rich that's the big question and that's the big question and that's exactly that's the big question now isn't it i mean france is going through what the french pm has called an unprecedented debt crisis today's call it crushing what is it going to do to not fall into the same kind of position that the southern

european countries are fallen into when you go to do several things and that's what we're going to try to do is going to be critical based on realistic growth assumptions about how to stick to the course of reducing the budget gets in the budget this. is going to have to come up with numbers. and he's going to have to reduce the electorate most important to the present situation and i want a bigger job there than what's the bigger problem convincing the electorate are actually making the cuts. because. you all. know it's not it's not a no it's thomas thanks for your thoughts political analyst thomas clair there from the european council on foreign relations on the line from paris much appreciate it . well the head examined over four fronts is recently defeated president nicolas sarkozy either we're reporting tonight police officers raided his house and office

as part of a campaign into a financial probe election funding is strictly limited in france and police are investigating whether sarkozy used cash from france's richest woman any are better than calling an oriole cosmetics heiress sarkozy has consistently denied any wrong doing that. small world views a series of deadly bombings in iraq targeted shia muslims a truck blast claimed at least twenty nine lives when it exploded in a market in karbala which will host a major pilgrimage next weekend just hours earlier five others died in a similar market attack in a twin car explosion in central iraq there's been a spike in nationwide violence since u.s. troops pulled out last december. a new york court ordered twitter hand over occupy wall street message is now the case centers around malcolm harris who is charged during last year's protests and deleted his posts about the demonstrations twitter insists the tweets belong to users not the company but the judges and convincing tweets are no more private than if someone shouted out of

a window. for julian assange anything but a quiet fortnight the us baying for blood and sweden intent on his extradition for questioning over alleged sex crimes and he's currently seeking asylum inside ecuador's embassy in london science respects the swedish extradition is a cover for america to seize him for blowing the lid on those military crimes in iraq and afghanistan but recently as attention has been on the plight of freedom for others with his talk show that's being airing here on r.t. and in the final edition we showing today the whistleblower show talks to malaysia's opposition leader of the violent struggle for free elections in his country. do not underestimate the wisdom of the people you have the. government sources every night in the national media abusing me and steal. marriage already but worse is to use this is a political ploy ramp up judges use the police in finally when the judicially although finally julian i was

a quitter but never said to do this it was independent right through the entity allowed that was just. disgusting you use this for. democracy democratic elections judicial independence and you abuse the process. well the latest and final additions mention of julian assange his interview shows all next hour again and you can see him time series at r.t. dot com the top of our website while you there some other stories reporting on right now online how's this for a smashing air display some of the trouble here. in the fighter pilots could be a big problem for getting too close to the supreme court building baghdad shattering all the windows you can see if you can hear it also the pulpit protesters return to the rope stage russian punk group pussy riot join in america by moscow but notoriety for storming

a cathedral government stumped. and tragedy on the track a test driver for russia's formula one team crashes during a test in hospital with serious injury updates on her condition for you online and in our team sports come a bit later this hour. germany is by far the strongest economy in the years in the eurozone but it still felt the punch of course of the euro crisis and certainty over the currencies fates led some germans then to stash their cash away from the banks. has been a case of that story. best for economy good for business. cross has been selling vintage cars for almost three decades but he says he's never had a better run of trade than in the last year and a half and use of the euro's instability has sold the wills of his business so well there is stiff competition event to become one of his customers. gold to the gold of the governor. you have the markets in your garage and the markets the old cars

and i think they buy more than. before the crisis price tags in his collection run from a mere fifteen thousand euro to massive three million for the bands. and while in the past the majority of his clients had a real passion for classic wales which are crosses now dealing with a new kind of buyer those who just want to part of their money for profit this car is a b.m.w. . only built two hundred fifty two cars and in two thousand and. five you have to spend for a call like that three hundred fifty thousand euros and today you have to spend a million real estate or jewelry almost all luxury sales are now reporting an opteron as germans fearful of the euro collapsing. churning that embattled cash in just something they see as more durable it's not like money has always been burning holes in german pockets traditionally the people of this country have been pretty

conservative spenders but the average household putting aside eleven percent of the time come what may be your risk future is shrouded in uncertainty more and more german for now buying into the idea that saving is wasting low interest rates combined with increasing inflation made savings accounts and profitable more than a decade ago france here among the bag few believe the euro crisis vindicated here once and for all turning a once diligent saver into germany's most. vocal advocate of spank spank spanned more and more people get. nervous even like the luxury people like rich people know things too they don't believe in the money and come home renovations to expensive medical procedures fear of the possible devaluation is pushing germans into a spending spree and his dental clinic the appointment calendar is already booked for several months i had and the clinics director himself is in no mood to wait and

see he's just bought a house that he never intends to live in my life nothing. can be. the only. people who want to give you. don't want for you. and while in other countries this would be taken as a sign of growing consumer confidence for big banking germans this really is spending for a rainy day kind of artsy reporting from munich in germany. twenty four hours from this past eight and this tuesday evening is culture with dmitri the business there sky there the big russian stock spread very much enjoying reason or market volatility and i think that's right you know it's one of those days when the russians dependence on oil is a good thing because in general we're seeing growth around half a percent the market rushes markets have been gaining around four percent today let's just take a look at what's happening with the oil price straight through for your six week

high brant is just below one hundred one dollars per barrel it took that mark a few hours ago it was above one hundred one and this is on the back of increased tensions surrounding the run of course concerns that there's been reports of military drills of course worrying investors causing anxiety about the sustainability of supplies from the region just in general but we've been talking to analysts and they say that russia although will not be able to. compensate for the lost eventually oil that saudi arabia job because production in russia is already at one of the peak levels it's recent to shift the focus towards asia rather than europe is going to provide it with a market of blood. pressure is exporting more oil to the far east through a new pipeline to parts of the world which storage is rely heavily on

a rainy noisy and there is a potential the russian oil heading to the far east will gain market share from the iranians and that might be a permanent shift if purchases such as japan korea. and china switched increasingly to taking more russian oil so there might be a permanent benefit from the situation. well here's another strafing of what i was saying earlier the r.t.s. up three point eight percent my six two and a half percent world other markets were doing course not doing well but in a moderate way on the my sex among the main movers financial stocks no surprise there mostly good stock markets burbank and therefore it's up completely in line with the with the growth for three point eight percent gazprom a bit weaker that two point three still very good performance that says the gas company has settled its differences with the israelis beyond.

the price dispute of the fourth quarter and luke oil is up one the half percent despite despite high oil prices now let's move over to currencies in the russian ruble is again the huge value against against the basket of currencies more than one percent against both the euro and the dollar on the back of those high oil prices and the euro is once again continuing its growth versus the dollar more than one point two six. and in the u.s. markets we've seen factory orders go up in the month of may a buy point seven percent so that's up to two months of the wind so that's a very positive side and therefore a positive performance on the markets despite a minor correction from the previous day after a very significant growth and right now in europe also the hype continues with the footsie closing up point eight percent the dax one point three percent barclays still one of the leading stocks on the markets as

a german stepped down after the life. incident that's what i've got for you this hour be back of course in fifty minutes time to bring up the already. next look at the challenges in the rapidly changing middle east. this hour's top stories in just a few minutes in three minutes and five here on our team from moscow.

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